You have to wonder where Sweetheart’s hangups came from. (Aside from, you know, general culture.) She doesn’t seem to be actively religious, and while her creator was rather breeding-focused, he doesn’t seem to have minded Muffin…

Having just googled opossum gestation (because somebody has to) apparently it’s about a fortnight (the shortest of any North American mammal). Although each litter comprises 16-20 babies, which I’d consider to be at least six families.

Also, it would be remiss (or at least “not pedantic”, which is almost as bad) of me not to point out that Sweetheart is wrong; they’re marsupials.

(Side note: for years, while being aware opossums were the only marsupial native to North America, I’ve assumed that – as marsupials – they were basically the same as Australian opossums, unlike Tasmanian tigers, marsupial mice and so on. Turns out nope!)

I’ve known published books refer to rabbits as rodents, which is simply inexcusable. And as for such “rodents” as moles, shrews and hedgehogs- they’re Insectivores, people! No, wait, Insectivora isn’t a thing anymore, sorry, it’s …. Erinaceidae and Soricidae? only Soricidae might not be a real thing either apparently. OK. As you were.

“The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to plug up the drain!”- Montgomery Scott
The idea that possums in the USA seem scary to some is odd… all I’ve ever seen ’em do is play dead, usually in front of a truck…

The one time I’ve come face to face with an opossum, it was quite literally face-to-face. It was in my mother’s fig tree, at my head level, within arm reach when I spotted it. It didn’t play dead, but it did freeze, staring at me. I could almost hear it thinking, “This fig leaf is big enough that you don’t see me.. Really, you don’t see me. Don’t see me, okay?” — but there was already eye contact between us.

Fortunately it stayed frozen long enough for me to go inside, retrieve my camera from the other end of the house, and return to take it’s picture. Which I then printed out and left on the kitchen table with a none to my mother about having identified the thief who’d been taking figs just as they were about to ripen.

My siblings thought it was ugly when they saw the photo (Mom taped it to the kitchen wall), but Mom thought it was cute even though it was taking figs she wanted to eat. I kinda saw both sides of that, maybe leaning a wee bit toward Mom’s position.

I hate it when people say rabbits are rodents (or draw them with paw pads, that’s a huge pet peeve of mine). What’s worse is I’ve seen people describe ferrets as rodents. They’re freaking carnivores, fangs and all. They’re raised to *hunt* rodents.

Loooong way from Australian possums. I’ve heard rumours that we got the wrong ones, that America should have the cute fluffy one, and Australia was supposed to get the vicious terrifying bitey one.
Me, I’m happy keeping it as-is. We’ve gotta have something to balance out the scary, kill-you-on-sight wildlife, right?

Is it, though? Sure, H.T. is the evil-mastermind type. But he’s never really had to deal with Tip for long before, or with Unity at all–and even Sweetheart has learned a thing or two since Cleveland. It could be that the combined powers of Team Skin Horse have got H.T. so wrong-footed that he’s had to put his evil plotting on hold for a bit so he can just sort of watch what happens and figure out what the hell to make of these people. (Besides lunch, of course.)

Maybe we’ll see a confrontation someday between the always devious and evil H.T. and the always evil and devious Mr. Green. Whoever won, it’d be an improvement. Unless they decided to team up . . . never mind.

As bad as Tip’s and Sweetheart’s ideas are, H.T.’s might possibly be worse. Whatever energy the possum’s machine has collected, dismantling it might cause it all to release all at once. At best, another explosion. At worst, it will summon the “mothership” (which I still say will be coming from either fair Carcosa or the Plateau of Leng).